Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Panic-y
Despite another superhuman performance by A-Rod, the Yankees lost yet again last night. At 8-10, things seem a lot worse than they really are because of the losing streak. They were 8-6 before the weekend, and really going well. The only really disturbing thing, to me, that happened, was Kei Igawa’s miserable start last night. After a promising start in Oakland and a great start against the Indians, that’s the last thing the Yankees needed—another pitcher shifted into the “we don’t know what we’ve really go here” category.
They’ll be putting another one into that category on Thursday, as they’re calling up top prospect Phil Hughes to start against the Blue Jays in New York. The team said they weren’t going to call him up until he was ready, but with Chase Wright finally getting caught up to on Sunday night, they had to go in some other direction. And why the hell not go with Hughes? He probably won’t do that well—Toronto’s a good hitting team—but if he does, well, then you’ve got something.
This season has a bit of a 2005-like feeling to it, though that team, after starting 3-2, plummeted under .500 and didn’t get back there until May 15th. The low point of that season, though, probably came in Tampa Bay, as the Yanks dropped 3 of 4 to a vastly inferior D-Rays squad. Tampa Bay is better now than they were then, but they’re still worse than the Yankees.
It was around this time in 2005 that the Yanks called up Chien-Ming Wang and Robinson Cano. In the case of Wang, it was supposed to be an emergency start, and I for one was more interested in the team giving Colter Bean his first shot (he was called up at the same time). Cano seemed like a panic move, and an ice-cold start seemed to confirm that the team was going down the drain. But Wang turned into a solid pitcher, Cano into a good second baseman, and the two moves ended up helping the team hugely on their way to another division title.
Will this move to bring in Hughes work out? Long term, Hughes probably will be a valuable contributor to the team, but there are certainly still things he needs to learn as a pitcher. Maybe Ron Guidry can help him learn those things now, in the majors, but there’s always the chance he gets bombed and nothing good comes of his time in New York. At least they’re not throwing him on Friday, because while a great game from Hughes against the Red Sox would be the biggest boost this team had all year, a bad performance would be a huge blow.
Unless Hughes throws a really good game, I can’t see the team giving him a spot in the rotation. He could take Jeff Karstens’ role when Mussina comes back next week, but the fifth starter doesn’t start on a regular basis, and you want Hughes to develop his arm strength enough that he can work every five days, and throw 220 innings a year. Giving him 9 days off isn’t what he needs.
So I’m excited, but cautiously optimistic about Thursday. I certainly hope the team isn’t looking ahead as much as I am right now, because it’s vastly more important that they get the split behind Wang tonight in St. Pete and break the losing streak before it turns into something major.
One last note: listening to the radio last night, John Sterling related A-Rod’s reaction when he came into the clubhouse and saw Wang. He jumped on top of him and yelled: “Wanger! I LOVE YOU! You’re BACK! I’m gonna take you on a DATE!”
Man, sometimes he makes it waaaaaaaay too easy for the haters who make the oh-so-clever “A-Rod is teh ghey” jokes.
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